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Nusa Tenggara Timur, Kabupaten Manggarai Barat, Indonesia
GPS: -8.5267441111027, 119.48410963753
Located between the islands of Sumbawa and Flores in the centre of the Indonesian archipelago, the Komodo National Park includes a 2,000 km² land and sea area. Its protected environment covers three large islands (Komodo, Rinca and Padar) and around twenty islets of volcanic origin, at the junctions of the continental Sunda Shelf and the Sahul Shelf. The Komodo National Park has the distinction of being on the Wallace Line, a biogeographical border identified by the British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace in the middle of the 19th century (with Charles Darwin, he is the co-discoverer of theory on natural selection). This dividing line marks the physical separation of Australian fauna from that of the Asian continent. This gives the park an incredible variety of flora and fauna evolving in a unique ecosystem.
The Komodo National Park is part of the famous Coral Triangle, one of the regions with the richest marine biodiversity in the world. Founded in 1980 to protect a creature endemic to central Indonesia, the Komodo dragon (monitor), and various cetacean species, this sanctuary is a natural site of great biological importance. It is home to the most beautiful creatures of the sea and serves as a habitat for a few thousand specimens of giant monitor lizards, better known as Komodo dragons, in a paradise environment. This carnivorous animal, whose origin dates back several tens of millions of years, represents the largest species of lizard on Earth. An estimated 5,000 Komodo Dragons live in the wild, 80% of them within the park. Cannibal by nature, it feeds mainly on mammals such as the Timor deer, a species also threatened by poaching. The Komodo dragon lives and hunts alone and is at the top of the park’s food chain. Today, this giant lizard is threatened with extinction due to the gradual fragmentation of its forest habitat and the growing influence of man on its environment.
The conservation area of the Komodo National Park brings together many animal and plant species evolving between the Pacific and Indian oceans. Populated by some 4,000 inhabitants, including many fishing families, this paradise for divers is also at the top of the ecotourism hot-spots. Hiking trails criss-cross idyllic beaches and the diverse vegetation in the park in search of the Komodo dragon.